Top 5 Productivity Improvements To Skyrocket Your E-commerce Business In 2019

By 2021, online e-commerce sales will account for 17.5% of all retail sales worldwide. So, the future is bright if you’re in this industry, but it’s only fair to admit that there are a lot of challenges to overcome in order to become a part of this positive statistic.

There’s a lot of competition that you have to outperform and deliver on what you’ve promised to your customers. The thing is that for your front office operations to run like clockwork, you need to look under the hood and streamline your back office operations.

These five tips will help you boost your productivity and increase your e-commerce sales.

1. Declutter Your Workspace

It’s no secret that our work environment has a profound impact on our productivity. Not only is it more pleasant to work from a tidy, spacious office where it’s easy to find every file and document, but it’s also vital for your productivity.

Namely, according to a study by the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute, it’s harder to focus when your environment is messy and cluttered. Besides that, your brain takes more time to process information when it’s exposed to “multiple stimuli present in the visual field”. In other words, instead of focusing on your work, you’re distracted by all these papers, boxes, and other clutter scattered around the office.

Another stat claims that the average office employee spends 1.5 hours a day looking for misplaced documents and files. So, to prevent clutter from piling up inside your mind and obstructing your focus, make sure that your workspace is neat and organized.

2. Use Time Management Techniques

Many people tend to procrastinate, and entrepreneurs aren’t exceptions. But this is a pretty expensive habit, as 40% of people say they have experienced financial loss due to procrastination. Similarly, the fact that the average employee spends approximately 2 hours each day on non-work related activities costs companies $10,369 annually per employee.

When we’re overwhelmed with tasks and to-dos, our first instinct is to put off the most important things until we’re “ready” and to tackle the small, unimportant tasks first, so that we can devote all our time to that big, important task that needs to be done. However, this usually turns into an agony of rushing to complete that high-impact task at the last minute, as the deadline is ominously looming ahead.

Instead, you can try to Eat That Frog and deal with the most complex, difficult, important, or unpleasant task right away. This time management technique suggests that this approach will significantly boost your productivity and give you a sense of achievement as you cross off a high-priority task off your list.

The Pomodoro technique is another productivity hack that can help you get the job done. Split your workday into 25-minute sessions – pomodoros – followed by 5-minute breaks. Set your timer and stick to predefined intervals. After four pomodoros, take a 20-minute break. The science behind this tactic is that the timer instils a sense of urgency, while the breaks help your brain regain its focus.

3. Take Advantage of Chatbots

Customer experience is crucial for every e-commerce business.

There are a lot of questions to be answered and issues to be solved if you want your customers to be satisfied. But that requires an army of customer service reps, who would be available 24/7, and that’s a luxury that not even the biggest brands can afford.

Chatbots, on the other hand, are always ready to assist your customers at any time of day and night. Moreover, they can handle and process a large volume of requests without putting customers on hold. This technology is affordable these days, and according to some estimates, chatbots can help you reduce your customer service costs by 30%.

Apart from being handy in terms of providing timely support, these smart algorithms will collect and process customer information and allow you to better understand your audience. Given that they record and analyze data, chatbots are capable of adjusting their processes and improving their performance.

All this means that chatbots will allow your customer service reps to focus on more complicated requests, instead of wasting their time answering frequently asked questions and handling issues that can easily be sorted out.

4. Reduce Meetings

Internal meetings can be huge time, energy, and money wasters. A recent study has shown that regular 90-minute meetings of mid-level managers cost $15 million annually. So, cutting down on unproductive meetings will save you a lot of time and money.

But, as it’s important for all your employees to be on the same page, it’s essential to find alternative ways of keeping everyone updated and up to speed on recent developments. Stand-up meetings have become increasingly popular, mainly because they’re quick, focused, and to-the-point, unlike their seated equivalents.

But, the most important rule for productive meetings is that they should be scheduled only when it’s necessary. Collaboration software can help you eliminate status update meetings, as they allow all members of a team to share their reports and inform others about their progress without interrupting anybody’s work.

Video conferencing tools are particularly useful, because they can make remote members of your team feel like they’re in the office with you and allow them to actively participate in meetings.

5. Implement Automation

There’s no better way to improve your productivity than by automating your processes.

If you’re using email marketing (and you should), then an email automation software can do wonders for your delivery, open, and conversion rates. These tools allow you to segment your audience and personalize your outreach based on different parameters – you can send welcome and thank you messages, newsletters, abandoned shopping cart notifications, as well as leverage cross-selling and upselling.

Inventory management software is a must if you want to be more efficient. No matter how big or small your inventory is, you can greatly benefit from always being in the know when certain products are running low or are out-of-stock.

Nowadays, every business needs to build a strong social media presence, and this can be difficult to achieve if you have to post everything manually. Social media management tools help you schedule all your posts in advance without having to worry that you’ll forget to inform your audience about an upcoming discount or contest.

Sometimes you don’t need a big budget or complicated work processes to improve things and grow your business. Believe it or not, these five simple tips can help you be more productive and transform your e-commerce into a thriving venture.

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